lynx saved atari?

[phuzaxeman]

i think that if atari held back on launching the jag and invested more time on advertising, more high quality titles (mk?), and developing a smaller/lighter, longer lasting less battery, and higher res screen lynx3, the atari corp would have lasted longer.

 

what r your thoughts?

Edited September 28, 2007 by phuzaxeman

[Foxsolo2000]

Atari was doomed through lousy management, penny pinching and management having no clear idea of what the next generation consoles should be. Development on the Lynx would not have saved the company

[lynxmatt1980]

I dunno, i guess the Lynx I and II helped keep Atari around a little longer i think, and if they had not completely failed with the Jaguar, they could have made a LynxIII or at least an adapter to let you play lynx games on the Jaguar.

 

has anyone heard if Epyx tried to sell the "handy" project to Sega before selling it to Atari? Cuz the Gamegear was a big POS, but they had great support from 3rd party software developers. Lynx was the other way around, as we all know.

[phuzaxeman]

I dunno, i guess the Lynx I and II helped keep Atari around a little longer i think, and if they had not completely failed with the Jaguar, they could have made a LynxIII or at least an adapter to let you play lynx games on the Jaguar.

 

has anyone heard if Epyx tried to sell the "handy" project to Sega before selling it to Atari? Cuz the Gamegear was a big POS, but they had great support from 3rd party software developers. Lynx was the other way around, as we all know.

 

i agree, the lynx sold well at first. i really think a lighter, longer lasting, and smaller pocket lynx would have given the gameboy a run for the money. people bought the gameboy for conveniece and innovation in new games. the lynx 3 could have done it in too with better graphics, sound, and color with the same convenience.

[Atariman]

I dunno, i guess the Lynx I and II helped keep Atari around a little longer i think, and if they had not completely failed with the Jaguar, they could have made a LynxIII or at least an adapter to let you play lynx games on the Jaguar.

 

has anyone heard if Epyx tried to sell the "handy" project to Sega before selling it to Atari? Cuz the Gamegear was a big POS, but they had great support from 3rd party software developers. Lynx was the other way around, as we all know.

 

i agree, the lynx sold well at first. i really think a lighter, longer lasting, and smaller pocket lynx would have given the gameboy a run for the money. people bought the gameboy for conveniece and innovation in new games. the lynx 3 could have done it in too with better graphics, sound, and color with the same convenience.

 

I doubt that any hardware revisions could have possibly beaten the Gameboy. Neither system was easily jammed into a pocket (though the Gameboy certainly was the closest fit) and there were tradeoffs for both systems, anyway. The Lynx can easily be played in the dark - for this ability you wind up with terrible battery life.

 

Ultimately it was the Lynx's library of games that made it fail - if it had gotten the same "killer apps" that the Gameboy did, Atari could have stayed afloat on the Lynx I hardware let alone the Lynx II or mythical Lynx III.

[+LS650]

I agree with the OP. The Tramiels sunk many, many millions of dollars into the Jaguar and its associated projects. As much as I like my Jaguar, it would have made more sense for them to have run with the modest success they did have in the Lynx. If Atari had played their cards differently, they could have tried to capture the portable market as their own niche.

 

Licencing of big name franchises, a Lynx 3 with better battery life, good marketing, etc. could have been done with that Jagaur money. It might have been enough to keep Atari alive.

[Pete5125]

I liked the Lynx and the system was better than the Jaguar, but truely Atari was never going to be considered 1 of the Majors again untill they had a Home System under their belts, Besides by this point both SEGA wich had $$ and NEC had entered the market and while both of them had 8 bit systems once the game was shrunk down to hand held size could you realy see a difference.

 

I know I couldn't plus Sega had both Sonic and $$ to advertise yet they couldn't put a deasent dent in the hand held market so what makes you think Atari would of.

 

The only difference is Atari should of made a Lynx Jaf adaptor from day 1, and while they didnt have to drop the Lynx they could of still finished some of their higher profile titles (Aliens Vs Predator) so that they wouldn't of pissed of retailers with the drop of supoort of yet another system.

 

But the truth is their was no way to save Atari they had screwed to many people in their buisness careers and never tried to pay people back.

 

From buisness people to consumers to media Atari had alot of fences to mend.

[phuzaxeman]

I liked the Lynx and the system was better than the Jaguar, but truely Atari was never going to be considered 1 of the Majors again untill they had a Home System under their belts, Besides by this point both SEGA wich had $$ and NEC had entered the market and while both of them had 8 bit systems once the game was shrunk down to hand held size could you realy see a difference.

 

I know I couldn't plus Sega had both Sonic and $$ to advertise yet they couldn't put a deasent dent in the hand held market so what makes you think Atari would of.

 

The only difference is Atari should of made a Lynx Jaf adaptor from day 1, and while they didnt have to drop the Lynx they could of still finished some of their higher profile titles (Aliens Vs Predator) so that they wouldn't of pissed of retailers with the drop of supoort of yet another system.

 

But the truth is their was no way to save Atari they had screwed to many people in their buisness careers and never tried to pay people back.

 

From buisness people to consumers to media Atari had alot of fences to mend.

 

the game gear actually had some success. but problems the lynx (bulky, price, batteries, and not as many titles) had ultimately killed the game gear against the gameboy.

[chris_lynx1989]

I would say that Jack Tramiel and his investors saved Atari from the "death axe" back in 1983.They kept it alive until August 1996.That 13 extra years was fun and interesting for many Atarians,even with the disappointing things we saw or heard that the Tramiels had said and/or done.It was fun while it lasted! I only know of Nintendo having looked at the Lynx hard while Epyx had it still back in 1987/8.Atari must have too,because of the last minute deal.

Edited October 5, 2007 by chris_lynx1989